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Among other themes, this video clip demonstrates the unique dynamics of collaborative efforts between children in inclusive classrooms. Chaislyn and Alyssa spend a full 19 minutes alternately frustrated and somewhat successful at tying each other’s shoes. After watching, you might like to consider how the themes below may apply and what implications they may have.

This video clip begins with two boys, Jaylin and Ethan, standing against a brick wall in anticipation of a start signal from Jeriah to begin the race. Jeriah stands away from the wall as if to establish his role as "starting gun". He sees that Ethan is looking at him, so he raises his hand to signal that the starting word "Go" is about to be spoken. But Jaylin is not looking at Jeriah, nor is Jeriah concerned that one of the racers is not ready. We might infer that the game is not about winning and therefore there is no need for an equal chance for all to start at the same time.

In this video clip a one-year-old girl notices that her classmate is sleeping and decides to comfort him. She lies down beside him, and like she has probably seen her own parents and teachers do, she pats his back. Next, she works to comfort her sleeping friend by offering him a stuffed toy cat. By trying to do for another child what usually makes her feel better, this toddler is learning how to empathize with, or understand, another’s feelings and experiences.

Length of stand-alone master video clip: 1 minute 36 secs.

A teacher poses an invitation for two infants to explore by placing a couple of small containers filled with clay slip nearby. Her provocation offers the infants an opportunity to learn about the features of this new material and to investigate how the clay slip behaves. Both infants approach the clay slip with curiosity. Jack may have the disposition of a risk-taker as without hesitation, he uses his hand to investigate the unfamiliar substance. Aidan is more cautious as he observes intently from a safe distance.

In this video clip, four infants and a teacher sit together on the floor exploring objects. As they play one of the infants utters a series of consonant-vowel syllables that sound something like a song verse. She says, “Da-dah, da-dah, dah”. Notice how the teacher treats the infant’s babbling as an intentional effort to communicate and follows the child’s lead by responding with a verse of her own.

In this video clip, Devon (blond) receives a business call while he is busy getting his hair cut, so Jared (brunette) helps out by answering the ringing telephone. Watch how the children deal with the language requirements of this modern device, the telephone. We see them hold the phone to their chest to mute the reception on the other end. We see them calculate how long it should take a pretend conversant to answer a question. We see their use of intonation to mark formal versus informal tones as appropriate to the pragmatics of the conversation.

Jessica is on the verge of beginning to walk. A competent crawler, she’s not yet sure about relying on her own two feet to get around. Notice how she exhibits the strength of her legs by raising her body up and down. Listen for Jessica’s response when the teacher (camera person) says, “Jessica, who did we just see on the tape taking so many steps?” Notice that Jessica babbles with intention as if responding to the teacher’s inquiry.

Four two-year-old children contentedly engage in parallel play at the sand table. Audrey shares what she is doing with the teacher (camera person) by saying, “I’m making a cake”. Periodically, she pours sand into the green measuring cup located in one corner of sand table. A conflict develops when Pixie (blond girl) notices the green measuring cup and begins to use it in her play. Although he is not directly influenced by the girls’ disagreement, one of the boys decides to take on the role of mediator. Notice how he calmly works to maintain the play by enforcing social rule.

Sometimes it helps to carefully study the action in a video clip in order to understand the intentions behind a child’s choice of actions. In this video, we see two infants sitting side by side amidst various types of paper and paper tubes that have been offered for exploration by their teachers. George finds the tube that Sophia is exploring most interesting and, at just the right time, he grasps it. He seems somewhat startled by her reaction, but in an effort to appease her, he rolls the tube in her direction and she reclaims it.

Stepping down a stair or running off the edge of a patio comes second nature to even young children. But have you even thought about the micro-decisions that a child must make to negotiate a changing terrain? Some of these decision are rather profound in their complexity and timing, such as throwing back the arms to counterweight the torso in order to keep it upright as the child steps down a level. If you say, "The brain just does this automatically" realize that this automaticity came slowly and consciously prior to skilled movement.